Client Development: 10 Important Lessons I Learned

Just doing good work, getting a Martindale A-V rating and waiting for the telephone to ring was not a viable client development strategy. That was just the price to have a chance to potentially attract clients.

I had to decide what I wanted to become and which clients I wanted to target. If I was marketing to everyone, I was marketing to no one.

I had to develop a plan that would enable me to be more focused on my efforts. The plan itself was not that important, but the thoughts that went into the plan were invaluable.

I had to find a way to be accountable for my non-billable client development efforts. It was too easy to blow off client development.

I actually did more client development activities when I was busy. I believe this was because I was afraid of waking up one day with nothing to do.

Writing was a great way to build my profile and become visible to my clients. I enjoyed writing articles that my clients and potential clients found valuable.

Writing led to speaking opportunities at industry meetings and speaking led to clients contacting me. I could take an article I had written and send it to an association executive and mention I would be happy to speak to the association members on the topic in the article.

I had to be patient, persistent and persevere as it took some time for my efforts to build traction. When I first focused on transportation construction it took two years of hard work before my first client called me.

Clients did not care about what I did. They only cared about how what I did would help them solve a problem or deal with a change. I wish I could share with you how this revelation came to me because it was one of the most important lessons I learned.

My best efforts were to focus on becoming a trusted advisor for my clients and keeping them happy with my work. Getting a new client is exciting. But, the lesson was to spend most of my time and energy on the clients I already had and know they would recommend me to others in the industry.

I learned these lessons by the seat of my pants and by making mistakes. I am hopeful that you will learn these lessons from me and not by making mistakes.

If you are interested, I have a video coaching program, you can preview here.